How to Influence People to Implement Changes

How to Influence People to Implement Changes

“That is nice a idea to try, but don’t expect anyone outside your group to do it.”

“I would do it, but our company has already adopted X, so there is no use in trying.”

“There is just not enough time in this release to try something new. Let’s do that later.”

At some point every Team member, ScrumMaster and Product Owner has heard those words (or their common variations) while trying to adopt Scrum, Agile or any new idea that shakes up the status quo. When repeated frequently, these phrases diminish an individual’s engagement and passion. The commonality in all these quotes is that a good-natured person with their heart in the right place is trying to change things beyond their sphere of control, encountering resistance and then being turned aside by someone. To break this cycle, a change agent needs a collection of strategies which will successfully influence people to join the them to make things better. What a change agents needs is someone to join them on their Fearless Journey.

I first encountered Fearless Journey (which is based on the change patterns found in the book Fearless Change) when I attended a consultant’s retreat on Agile Chartering in the Fall of 2014. My friend Deb Hartmann Preuss introduced me to this simple game. Immediately, I found the whole idea intriguing because the game was just a simple deck of playing cards. The key difference is that instead of having hearts, spades, diamonds, kings, queens and jacks, the Fearless Journey deck has forty-six of the change patterns from the book printed on them.

One note before we begin the explanation of the game, if what the participants of the game want to change is within their control, then Fearless Journey is not for them. In these cases, I suggest using a technique called Circles and Soup from Diana Larsen. Fearless Journey works best when the object of change is outside the direct control of the participants.

Before dealing out the cards from the deck, the game facilitator will help the players brainstorm for six to eight minutes to identify anywhere from five to ten obstacles, impediments or challenges confronting them. In this stage, it is very common for the participants to focus on their current day-to-day challenges – some type of delay, poor quality of something or another, lack of adherence to this standard or that. Generally, the list of impediments will be something very tactical and tangible for the participants. That is fine since when you ask people what is bothering them, they tell you what is on their mind. Hopefully, the players will recognize some commonality in their impediments and\or duplication. The key is to find an obstacle that all of them face. Use this obstacle for the next stage.

The next step is a little tricky, so pay attention. Fearless Journey is about helping the participants go from their current reality to a new reality where their world has changed dramatically. Not only have they solved their common impediment but all the little problems they identified are gone as well – a miracle has happened. The facilitator asks the participants, “So what would have changed in order for this miracle to have occurred?”

Usually, there is a moment of silence (or a few people object to the use of magic), then the ideas start flowing and this where the facilitator needs to listen carefully. Almost always the facilitator needs to keep probing and ask the miracle question again, “So if they agreed to X, what miracle would have had happened then?” or “What miracle would have happened for everyone to see the impact of Y?”

Keep asking until you get someone to say, “If that happened, I better start looking for a new job” and everyone laughs. Or someone might say, “If you could make that miracle happen, I’d give you a million dollars” and everyone laughs. When you get to the laughter, you know you are close to your objective. Once you unearth that dark, gallows laughter – the laughter of disbelief – you know you have found the new reality the players are searching for, the reality the eliminates all the obstacles in front of the players. A reality that none of the players think is possible, but a reality Fearless Journey is specifically designed to help them see is really possible. This new reality is the destination for their Fearless Journey.

Once you get to that goal, write it on a post-it note and on another post-it note write, “Now” (or “Today”). On one end of the table, place the post-it note that says “Now” and about five feet away place the post-it with their future, aspirational goal. In a second round of brainstorming, ask the players to identify between four to eight obstacles, one per post-it note, blocking them from reaching their new reality. This process normally goes fairly quickly, but be careful the players do not engage in too much problem solving at this step. All we want is a list. When they have completed making their list of impediments, ask the participants to place the post-it notes in a line between “Now” and their future state. This line now represents all the obstacles in their way of their Fearless Journey.

This article is getting a bit long, so I will publish a follow-up article to review the game mechanics.

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Carlton Nettleton is the Chief Product Owner at Applied Frameworks, a management consulting firm, and co-creator of Online Education at Applied Frameworks. Carlton has over eighteen years of industry experience working with clients to improve quality, increase productivity, build great teams and launch new products using Agile software development practices and techniques.
Today, Carlton’s focus is directed at mentoring and supporting Scrum and Agile practitioners who work in less than ideal conditions. He shares his energy and enthusiasm with our learners so they can achieve their personal and professional goals. Carlton is fluent in both English and Spanish, has written a short book on Scrum and has been Certified Scrum Trainer® since 2012. Read Full Bio

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